LINES FOLDING – REEDS BENDING

Lines Folding is the name of a new work by Andrew Schultz for quintet of woodwind reed instruments: oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone and bassoon. The work has its premiere in Victoria on 1 and 3 May 2026 performed by Reeds Bending. Performing at the concerts are Emmanuel Cassimatis on oboe, Freya Parr on clarinet, Matthew Kneale on bassoon, Niels Bijl on saxophones and Jorja Withall on bass clarinet.

The performances are at St John’s Anglican Church (5 Finch Street, East Malvern) in Melbourne at 7:30PM on Friday 1 May and at the Yarragon Studio (515 Yarragon South Road, Yarragon South) in Gippsland on Sunday, May 3 at 3pm.

Lines Folding is a two-movement work of about 13 minutes. The work is dedicated to Geoff Stearn and was commissioned for Reeds Bending by The Australian Cultural Fund. It was composed in Sydney in the second half of 2025.

The first movement is marked “With melancholy yearning” and is slow and lyrical in its outer sections. The second movement is fast and very agile for the players. The movement is marked “Pulsing but very smooth” and presents patterns in harmonic cycles.  The overall title, Lines Folding, refers to the overlapping lines of gentle counterpoint throughout.

Reeds Bending ensemble was born in 2020 in the midst of the Victorian COVID lockdowns, instigated by saxophonist Niels Bijl, who was at that time a newcomer to the Melbourne scene. Heartbroken that so many performing artists were trying to survive in a society that forgot to support musicians in times of need, concerts were organised to show that artists always found a way to survive – they will bend with every storm. Now again in unprecedented hard times the group has come together and built a program that embraces the calm and inspiration of live music.

The program will feature the brand new work, Lines Folding by Andrew Schultz, as well as musical gems by Grieg, Mendelssohn, Britney Benton and Marc Mellits.

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